A robot vacuum usually costs more than a traditional vacuum, though not always. You no longer have to suffer the indignity of dragging around an unwieldy plastic hose that’s connected to a clumsy, wheeled canister the size of a Galapagos tortoise. Robot vacuums can help you dispose of dust, pet hair, and other debris in your home with minimal effort on your part.
The images were not taken by a person, but by development versions of iRobot’s Roomba J7 series robot vacuum. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that contracts workers around the world to label audio, photo, and video data used to train artificial intelligence. Speaking of results, the graph above shows you how each cleaner we’ve tested over the past few years stacks up on hardwood floors. The iRobot Roomba Combo J7 Plus is our top-tested cleaner on that surface, picking up averages of 98% of crumbs and an extra-impressive 100% of sand.
IRobot’s Roomba i7+ makes our best robot vacuum list because it has a base with its own dustbin, so you can go multiple cleanings without having to empty out the bin. It edged out the Shark Ion R85 on our pet hair test, picking up just over 90 percent of all the fur on both hard floors and carpet. It was slightly quieter than the average from our tests as well, with a reading of 62.6dB. Different robot vacuums will have different strengths and weaknesses based on their designs, irobot vacuum cleaner so our variety of tests help us make recommendations that are as informed and well-rounded as possible. A good robot vacuum makes it easy to keep your floors clean at home, and after countless hours of tests, we think the Dreametech DreameBot D10 Plus is the best pick for most people. They’re smarter, more powerful and (marginally) better at avoiding chair legs than they ever were before, and some of them even have built-in mopping functionality and a penchant for pet hair.
According to the Wyze customer support forums, a beta version of the Wyze app supports multiple maps, and it’s supposed to be released widely at some point. If that doesn’t matter to you, or if you’re willing to believe that Wyze will actually release that multi-level update soon, the Wyze robot seems like a decent-enough option. The 11S is quiet enough that you could easily forget that it’s running if you’re home at the time. We measured the volume on the bot’s maximum suction setting and found that it was just 57 dBc, a full 5 decibels quieter than the Roomba 694—that’s a major difference. On its normal suction setting, the 11S operates at just 53 dBc, sounding more like a fan than a vacuum cleaner (traditional vacuums are often 70 dBc or louder because of their much stronger suction). And since the 11S stops short of most obstacles, it avoids creating many of the bonking impact noises that the rougher Roomba 694 makes.
Other basic Eufy models have slightly stronger suction and can be a couple of decibels louder, but they are still quieter than most competitors. Judging from our experience, it can be useful in spaces as large as 1,000 square feet, as long as you run it most days of the week as a habit and can forgive irobot vacuum cleaner that it might not thoroughly clean every room every time that it runs. But some people don’t want to deal with unpredictable coverage, and that’s understandable. If you want a smarter robot, take a look at our top pick, the iRobot Roomba i3 EVO, and our also-great pick, the Roborock Q5.